26 November 2007
Switchgrass, “the Plant that will SAVE America”
Posted by Carleton Schade under: Energy; Future; Sustainability .
The October, 2007 issue of Wired magazine dismisses hydrogen, solar, wind, and corn-produced ethanol as viable energy sources, mainly as dramatic introduction to their cover story about the future of switchgrass. This is the plant, according to the article’s title, that will save America.
Switchgrass has its promises, no doubt. However, given the tough molecular design of cellulose we have not as yet found a way yet to competitively produce ethanol from it. The technical optimist, with some justification, will assure us that we just have to wait until oil prices rise enough. At that point, the profit motive will funnel the needed research and development into solving the problem. Same argument made by the oil shale enthusiasts–by the way–who argued for decades that petroleum would have to reach $50 a barrel before the shale-derived hydrocarbon would be profitable. Oil is now almost double that, but little shale oil on the American market.
Still, yes, switchgrass is the darling of the technological optimists. Wired’s primary objection to corn-processed ethanol is that it is rather inefficient at producing energy. “…it generates at best 30 percent more energy that is required to grow and process the corn—hardly worth the trouble.” Nothing, of course about the morality of driving up the cost of corn for millions of poor people or for using what could be food to instead fuel one’s drive to the video store. Nothing about ethanol’s carbon dioxide emissions, which are–according to the U.S. Department of Energy–equal to oil’s. And there certainly isn’t any consideration at a more evolved, world-centric level of consciousness about growing vast tracts of one crop to fuel our profligacy at the expense of what would otherwise be a bio-web composed of thousands of species.
Okay, so let’s keep the debate to what is best for Americans. That is, afterall, the focus of the article… Switchgrass produces more energy than corn–80% more energy than is required to grow it. Which means for every acre of switchgrass that goes into a car, you have to grow another 1.2 acres of switchgrass as production energy. How many more acres of mono crop do we need to supply our 300 billion gallon a year habit? Not just 300 billion gallons, nor the 660 billion gallons to account for the production of the ethanol. Since alcohol produces about 70% of the heat value of oil, we’d need enough switchgrass to produce 940 billion gallons of ethanol to equal the oil equivalent of our 300 billion yearly gallons. Switchgrass would probably be able to produce at best a very optimistic 1000 gallons of useable energy per acre, which means it would take growing just under a billion acres of switchgrass to supply all our petroleum energy “needs”. Furthermore, if pests attacked switchgrass with as much zeal as they do other crops, then we’d need double that land, about two billion acres.
The one billion acres, alone, is already seven times more than the 150 million acres devoted to crops in the United States and a little less than the nation’s total land allotted to all farming, pasture and rangeland. So, to substitute (the as yet hypothetical) switchgrass ethanol for even a small percent of American oil use will require turning the entire non-forest, non-urban portion of the United States into a vast alcohol farm. And once we plant the U.S. with switchgrass, what of the rest of the world? How much of the planet do we cover in switchgrass to fulfill everyone’s desires?
Sure, sure, no one is saying switchgrass will fulfill all our energy needs. It will be but one part in an integrated system of fossil fuel, nuclear and alternative fuels including solar, wind, etc., etc. In this more realistic scenario, let’s say switchgrass provides 10% of the total U.S. energy. That’s still 100 to 200 million acres of mono-cropping, and for what? To provide a measly 30 billion gallons. There’s still another 270 billion gallons for which we would have to find substitutes. Oh, wait, another complication. 300 billion is today’s consumption. But that is supposed to increase, perhaps double by the year 2050. And on and on. We are working so hard to hold on to our high-consumption lifestyles. We’re in that box, and most everyone with a good idea is still thinking from inside of it.
2 Comments so far...
Jeff Selin Says:
28 November 2007 at 10:10 pm.
Ugh. What’s a growing population with a busy schedule to do? Non-corn ethanol… at least it can shake the foundations of our corn consuming culture. Now we can have “Children of the SwitchGrass” horror flicks and rewrite the Thanksgiving table story to include bad salad. Curious if you’ve attempted a dialog with editor/writer at “Wired”–Evan Ratliff–on this topic. On their site they have a link: http://www.wired.com/services/feedback/letterstoeditor
Pablo Says:
25 August 2008 at 12:44 pm.
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